1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for determining and validating vehicle priorities at geographical roadway intersections. More particularly, this invention relates to a method for validating vehicle priorities utilizing probe data.
2. Related Art
Digital maps comprise a collection of data compiled and formatted into a virtual representation of land features, related objects and services as they exist in reality. The goal of most digital map providers is to produce maps that give accurate representations of a particular area, detailing major road arteries and point features. As the detail of such digital maps, and the navigation systems that utilize them, increases the ability to verify the accuracy of these details becomes increasing difficult.
A recent approach to increasing the accuracy of road location and traffic direction has been to utilize crowd sourcing. The concept of crowd sourcing utilizes a large number of users utilizing navigational devices, such as personal navigation devices, during their routine travels. The users develop data during such travels as their navigational devices continuously monitor their location and travel. The data can be collected actively, wherein the users actively link their devices with the mapping company to upload data or identify corrections to the mapping data. In addition, the data can be collected passively utilizing software located on the navigational devices. The popularity of commercial applications for use on personal devices such as cell phones provides a convenient and efficient method for passively collecting map data.
The primary usage of such probe data has been for verification of the geographic location of road elements within digital maps. If a given road's geometry is not reflected accurately within a digital mapping system, regular traffic over the road combined with sufficient probe data received from such traffic will allow for an accurate correction of existing data. Similarly, it is known that such probe data may be utilized to monitor and report on real time traffic congestion. This traffic information is utilized by navigation systems to provide users with more accurate travel times in addition to the calculation of faster routes.
It would be desirable, however, to utilize crowd sourcing and the related probe data to determine and verify more information than simply road location and traffic speed. Rather, it would be highly desirable to access this data to provide new and detailed information for digital maps and navigation that would further increase utility to users. One such arena would be the analysis of road intersections. At the intersection of two or more roads, vehicles traveling in different directions will have varied rights of way. Often this is dictated by road signs or traffic lights but may also be controlled by traditional right of way rules. In present digital maps and navigational systems, however, this detail is not considered or reported. This information would be useful both to operators as well as road planners.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of determining and validating vehicle priorities at road intersections. It is a further object of the present invention to utilize probe data to determine and validate these vehicle priorities.